I removed the first issue because I had shared with you some incorrect information. This is a reprint of the oringal with the correction. After suggesting to you how important it was to know what we believe, why we believe it and what was our source…I did just the opposite. Read the comment I received this evening below:

Just an fyi on your blog tonight: most scholars believe Luke never met Jesus.  He was a doctor and definitely not one of the disciples.  Also, mark at best observed Jesus from a distance as he was a young boy during Jesus’ earthly ministry and likely wrote himself in his account as the young boy following Jesus to crucifixion and when grabbed ran away naked. Matthew was the only disciple and fellow traveler with Jesus of the Synoptics.  Of course John was in Jesus’ inner circle.  

The Synoptic Gospels is where I got it wrong. So what are they? 

The Synoptic Gospels are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament. They are called “synoptic” because they share a similar view or perspective, presenting many of the same stories, often in the same sequence and with similar wording, unlike the Gospel of John. The term “synoptic” comes from the Greek word “synoptikos ” meaning “seen together” or “able to be seen together.” This similarity suggests a literary relationship between these three Gospels, possibly through shared sources or direct copying. 

Ok, hope I haven’t confused you. We will now continue with the rest of the blog.

I believe there are times that we look upon the Bible, perhaps rather haphazardly. I’ve heard descriptions of the Bible being everything from stories, history events, just all kinds of examples of what people believe the Bible is. It is in many ways in all fairness, a history of the world, God’s World, but more importantly, it is a record of God’s relationship with us, the establishing of that relationship and the damage done to that relationship in the garden, and then a reconciliation process. It begin with Moses all the way through to the birth crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christian Bible, God’s word to his people’s has many divisions within itself. Most Christians are familiar with the fact there is an Old Testament and there is a New Testament and it is usually the Old Testament that gets set aside more often than used and yet in our study that we had in a class I’m involved with in Genesis there are 35 quotes from the book of Genesis in the New Testament. There are some misconceptions that I think we have that have carried over through the years simply because that’s the way that the Bible has been structured by the church. For instance what was the very first book of the New Testament? The earliest New Testament book written is generally believed to be the letter to the Thessalonians or first Thessalonians by Paul, the apostle. Possibly it was written around 50 CE while the gospels are often placed first in the New Testament, scholarly consensus suggest they were written much later with Mark likely being the first gospel possibly around 65 or 70 CE. That book was followed by Matthew and Luke. You know while it may seem rather ridiculous the point is it’s very very important for us as Christians to know what we believe why we believe it and where did we get it? What is our source? Matthew and Luke are generally believed be written in the 80s CE with John coming later in the 90s CE there are as many as 50 versions of the English Bible, not counting multiple versions of the Bible in other languages. There is a lot of information we could share with you, but that is the problem. It is really very simple, this bible thing. From that foot trodden dusty small square in the city of Jerusalem they went forth, empowered by the HOLY Spirit on that day of Pentecost. Peter’s speech that day resulted in over 3000 people to join The Way that day. In time they would take the message to the known world of that day.

 Life Is Good

jk